1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adhesive composition and a thermal transfer sheet, and, more particularly, to an adhesive composition which has excellent heat sealing characteristics and resistance to blocking when it is used for the formation of an adhesive layer, is also superior in miscibility with various organic or inorganic additives and allows these additives to exhibit their functions sufficiently when these additives are added and has high transparency, and also to a thermal transfer sheet having a layer comprising the adhesive composition.
2. Description of the Related Art
The formation of an image using, for example, a sublimation type thermal transfer system, melt type thermal transfer system or ink jet system has been of very wide prevalence. These systems can form a beautiful image simply and are therefore widely used for printing in a small lot and for personal use.
It is known that in an image formed in the above simple image forming system, neither a strong binder nor a film forming material is usually used unlike the case of general printing systems such as offset printing and gravure printing and the resulting image is therefore inferior in friction resistance, light resistance, weatherability and chemical resistance. As a method of solving such a problem, a method in which a transparent resin layer is formed as a protect layer on the surface of an image is used and a simple method of forming a protect layer, for example, a protect layer thermal transfer system is known.
In the above protect layer transfer system, a transferable transparent resin layer is transferred to and laminated on a desired position of an image by using a protect layer thermal transfer sheet provided with the transparent resin layer on one surface of a substrate sheet. Such a protect layer transfer sheet is generally provided with a heat sealing adhesive layer on the surface of a protect layer so that the protect layer is easily transferred. Further, various additives such as an ultraviolet absorber, silica, polyethylene wax, conductive material and antistatic agent are added to the adhesive layer.